Coronavirus Devastates Black New Orleans: 'This Is Bigger Than Katrina'
David Benoit 1 hr ago
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a man standing in front of a cloudy sky© Annie Flanagan for The Wall Street Journal
Spring is usually harvest time for Big Sam Williams and other New Orleans musicians.
Mr. Williams and his band, Big Sam’s Funky Nation, expected to play more than 25 shows at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival in late April. During those weeks he can bring in $50,000, a big part of his annual income and enough to sustain him when the humid summer quiets the city’s streets.
This year the Funky Nation is in his driveway, socially distanced and streaming live on Facebook for tips.
“There is no side job,” Mr. Williams, a trombonist, said. “This is what I do.”
New Orleans and Louisiana are taking a direct hit from the coronavirus pandemic. More people in the state are currently on unemployment rolls—300,000—and more have died—2,500—than when Hurricane Katrina slammed the shores 15 years ago. The New Orleans area at one point had the worst coronavirus death rate in the U.S.
As with Katrina, the burden is falling disproportionately on black Louisianians.
Black residents make up 32% of the state’s population but 55% of its deaths from Covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. The numbers are similar in New York, Chicago and across the country.
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